CAIRO MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART RE-OPENS AFTER $10-MILLION
RESTORATION

By Culturekiosque Staff

CAIRO, 20 AUGUST 2010  After a $10-million restoration project
that lasted 8 years, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt officially reopened
the worlds largest Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo on Saturday 14 August
2010.

The twenty-five galleries comprising more than 2,500 artifacts from a
total archive of over 100,000 objects is scheduled to open to public view
in early September.

The first wing displays materials from Egypts own Islamic history in
chronological order Umayyad, Abbasid, Tulunid, Fatimid, Ayubid, Mameluke
and Ottoman. The second wing houses artefacts from other nations, such as
calligraphy, manuscripts, incense burners, dated to various periods in
Islamic history and organized according to chronology, provenance and
material.

According to Agence France Presse, two of the rare treasures on
view include a gold-inlaid key to the Kaaba, the massive building that
houses the black stone in the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, and
the oldest Islamic dinar ever found, dating back to the year 697. The
Prophet Muhammed, founder of the religion of Islam, died in 632.

The 1903 building in central Cairo was originally built to house and
protect the country's rich heritage from looters of antiquities, noted the
report.

Last Saturday's opening of the museum came during the first week of the
Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.